Grow That Muscle: Build A Quality Body

Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands Review

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Exercise bands are all the rage nowadays; they’re cheap and effective. Everyone has them in their gym bag, but do you? Which ones do you buy?

The one thing that most gym goers go wrong is not warming up properly. This can lead to serious injury that can keep you out of the gym, pretty much the opposite of what you want. This is where resistance bands come in. The resistance loop bands I’ll be reviewing today is the Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands.

The Importance of Warming Up

As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t warm up properly before exercising, it can lead to injury that can leave out of the gym. You should gently warm up your muscles before weightlifting, which entails gradually increasing your heart rate and blood circulation.

Stretching prepares your muscles for the pain you’re going to put them through. It also raises the temperature in your muscles.

Why do you want to raise the temperature of your muscles?

Hemoglobin, a protein in your blood that transports oxygen, releases more oxygen into your muscles when at a higher temperature.

Again, why should I care?

More oxygen = better performance, it’s that simple.

You’ve probably seen dudes warm up in the gym in hoodies, sweating buckets. If you’ve ever seen Rocky, he always warms up in a gray hoodie and sweatpants.

The increase of temperature by wearing a heavy piece of clothing warms up your muscles (duh!). This allows your muscles to contract quicker and respond to stimulus faster. If you’ve ever been in the freezing cold in the dead of a Canadian winter, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Your extremities, such as your hands and feet, won’t react as fast. Heart rate is slowed, reaction time and strength are decreased.

Performance in the gym needs to be 100%, that’s why you’re there in the first place. To increase performance, you probably already drink a pre workout drink. But have you heard about using salt for a performance increase? Read my other article on  Why I Put Salt in My Preworkout and Why You Should Too.

Something that isn’t mentioned frequently with warming up is mentally preparing yourself for the exercise. So many gym goers (myself included unfortunately) step foot in the gym and instantly want to move some heavy-ass weight. You want to prepare yourself for that next personal record, so you want to get in the mindset as well. Try to think about the technique of the exercise you’re going to perform while warming up. Go through the motions so you don’t get caught up in yourself.

Fit Simplify Resistance Exercise Loop Bands Review

You can’t really go wrong with these bands, and you don’t need anything more complicated either. The bands themselves are 12” by 2” wide and are made of latex (not rubber), so you don’t get that funny chemical smell.

Included are five different bands at different strengths. As per Amazon, these are the resistances per band:

    • Green (x-Light) 2-4 lbs (thickness is 0.4 mm)
    • Blue (Light) 6-8 lbs (thickness is 0.60 mm)
    • Yellow (Medium) 10-12 lbs (thickness is 0.80 mm)
    • Red (Heavy) 15 – 20 lbs (thickness is 1.0 mm)
  • Black (x-Heavy) 25 – 30 lbs (thickness is 1.2 mm)

In my normal gym sessions, I’ll generally use the bands before any chest or shoulder exercises. Check out my other article Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Upper Chest on how to warm up before chest exercises.

The best part about these loop bands is that they’re so flexible in use. You can hit pretty much any body part with these, and that’s why they should be a staple in your warm up routine.

For legs, I like to start with lateral band walks or X band walks. Lateral band walks are super simple to set up too, just step in the loop and start stepping sideways.

If you want more tension, try the X band walk. This is a very similar exercise, except that you make a small loop with the band to hold on to and step on the band instead of wrapping it around your ankles.

For lower back exercises, banded hyperextensions are king. If you have issues holding a plate to your chest during hyperextensions, this is your next step. They add constant tension, so you don’t have to rely on gravity to do it’s work. Plus if you want to make the exercise more challenging, just use a heavier band!

The bands themselves are made well, and feel comfortable against your skin. The last thing you want is ripping the outer layer of your skin off as you attempt to warm up in excruciating pain (let’s avoid that completely). Also included is a lifetime guarantee for the bands, in the event that you become super Hulk and stretch the bands beyond belief.

Where can I buy the bands?

You can buy Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Bands on Amazon, check them out below.

Keep them in your gym bag so you’ll always bring them to the gym. Make it a habit to stretch every little muscle before jumping into weightlifting.

Injuries are lessened when you dynamically stretch before exercising, increasing muscle activation and blood flow.

The Ultimate Bodybuilder’s Guide to Fast Food [2018 Edition]

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Fast food and bodybuilding just don’t mix, but what happens if you desperately need a cheat meal? You should already know how bad fast food is for your body, but let’s say you want to indulge: what do you eat? I’ll show you the best fast food restaurants to eat at if you want to keep your gains and feel fat.

Ignoring the obvious, fast food is one of the worst things you can put into your body. High in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories, it’s nutritionally dense but cheap. Available pretty much every time and everywhere, fast food is ubiquitous. You can’t enter a mall or drive down a main street without seeing the Golden Arches.

 

If you’re out travelling or just plain hungry, you’ve probably thought about getting a nice delicious, greasy, cheesy hamburger but you don’t. You don’t because it’s shit food and your plain chicken breast and broccoli hits your macros better than it ever could. But let’s say you want to indulge and treat yourself, what do you eat? Let’s jump in to the best fast food choices that bodybuilders would eat.

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Switch Up Your Deadlifts With The Reeves Deadlift, The Forearm Destroyer

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You’ve probably heard of sumo, Romanian and snatch grip deadlifting techniques, but have you heard of the Reeves deadlift? It’s a killer exercise to nail your upper back and work your forearms. In this article I’ll show you what the Reeves deadlift is and why it’s a great exercise.

Reeves Deadlift technique

 

 

Deadlifting, in the general sense, works many different muscles. This is why it’s called a compound exercise. Deadlifting will hit your quads, hamstrings and back (and a whole lot of other smaller muscles!).

 

Your posterior chain, which is is a group of muscles running from your calves to your rear delts, is used primarily when deadlifting.

 

The reason why deadlifting is such a great exercise is because it has real world applications and explosively works your posterior chain muscles.

 

For example, on the beginning of the lift, your quads will take dominance in raising the weight off the ground, which then engages your glutes and hamstrings. During the lift, your back muscles engage (lats) then the trapezius muscles.

 

Since you will be gripping the shit out of the bar, you’ll feel the burn in your forearms. The deadlift isn’t an exercise that works your biceps, shoulders or forearms as other exercises. This is where the Reeves deadlift comes in.

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The Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Upper Chest: Best Exercises

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A powerful and full upper chest is what really makes your body pop out from others. A big chest is the manliest muscle you can have, and in this article I’ll show you the best upper chest exercises and how to build a stronger upper chest.

 

Having a big chest is one thing, but having a well-developed upper chest that pops out is another.

Have you ever looked in the mirror and felt that something was missing? A full upper chest is what is going to bring your physique together.

 

We go to the gym to look good (most of us anyway), so why wouldn’t you workout a muscle that makes you look big?

Take a look at this:

 

Look how much wider a big upper chest makes you look!

 

Even going back to classic bodybuilders, you can see how round and full their chests are.

 

You’ve probably asked yourself why you haven’t heard of an upper chest muscle. That’s because it doesn’t exist. Your chest is a muscle group that includes the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor.

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Fat Gripz Review: The Best Way To Build Your Forearms

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Training your forearms for grip strength should be included to help your lifts, Fat Gripz is a tool that makes training your grip a lot more efficient. This article is my Fat Gripz review that includes real pictures of my results after using them (scroll down to see!).

The last thing you want to happen is your forearms giving out during working out. Your grip strength can make or break your lifts, seriously.

Fat Gripz high res image

Think back when you started lifting, where you could barely curl a barbell. Chances are you probably felt the burn a lot more in your forearms than your biceps.

Back then, your grip strength was the limiting factor during your lifts. Unless you train your forearms directly, you could be missing out on gains.

There are a few methods you can do now to train and kill your forearms. There are thick barbells, wrapping a towel around a bar, or just simply wrist curls. Sure you can use wrist curls now and then hit your forearms, but that’s not really efficient (never mind boring!).

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a thick bar in the wild unless some super dedicated powerlifter brought one with them. In case you don’t know, a thick bar is just a thicker barbell. They’re specialized equipment that doesn’t come cheap, so you may not get a chance to use it.

My Fat Gripz Review: You’ve Gotta Try Them…

In comes Fat Gripz. I can’t speak enough to the results I’ve gotten from them. In short, it’s a bar wrap made out of  an “ultra tough military-grade compound like rubber” that works anywhere. You can throw them on barbells and dumbbells alike, and still get that awesome pump.

My forearms after using Fat Gripz

If you want your forearms to grow, you NEED Fat Gripz

The Benefits Of Using Fat Gripz…

What Fat Gripz do is allow more forearm leverage to allow more muscle activation in your hands, forearm, and arms. By opening the palm of your hands up, your forearms and arms, in general, will have an increased weight load. You’re forced to squeeze your hands to grip the weight, then move the weight.

I’ve heard of guys using Fat Gripz for the first time and they said it was like picking up weights all over again.

GrowThatMuscle Fat Gripz Review on barbellThere are so many exercises where your hands limit you. Basic exercises like rowing for your back put so much emphasis on grip strength. If you can’t grip the bar, how can you move the weight? Your forearms can give out during a set of pull-ups, and you’re absolutely done before your back had any muscle activation.

I’ve spun my wheels enough in the gym to realize there are better ways of working out.

What I like about Fat Gripz is how versatile they are, and it’s so refreshing to change up your workouts. I know for myself I can get stuck in “workouts ruts” where I just hate training a certain muscle group (like biceps). Adding something new and changing things up really make the gym more exciting. Who doesn’t like new toys to play with?

I even started using Fat Gripz when benching for some variation and it really amps things up.

My Favourite Exercise with Fat Gripz

Forearms respond best to high rep training. If you want some phenomenal growth, try doing across chest hammer curls with Fat Gripz. Really focus on the squeeze of your biceps and forearms on the way up, I guarantee you the pump will be mind-blowing.

Do Fat Gripz Work? See My Results

I wanted to review Fat Gripz, so I started using them during my workouts a few months ago. It seems like now I get new veins on my forearms every week. Don’t believe me? Check below.

My review of Fat Gripz
This is just after 3 months of incorporating Fat Gripz into my workouts. Results speak for themselves!

Where To Buy Fat Gripz

You can purchase the classic Fat Gripz on Amazon or Fat Gripz Extreme, which is an even thicker version. In case you were wondering, Fat Gripz are made in the USA. Add Fat Gripz to your workouts and I guarantee you’ll get results!